My beeper went off for the tenth time. It was a Sunday morning in August, and I was making hospital rounds before going to the office to see sick children in the afternoon. I didn’t recognize the number in my beeper. “Call the hospital operator,” it said.

“You have an urgent call!” the operator said. “I’m putting you through to Jim from hospital maintenance.” Maintenance? As a pediatrician, I receive many calls from and about patients, but from maintenance?